India Tests First Hypersonic and Subsonic Naval Missiles
India became part of an exclusive group of nations that can launch a weapon almost impossible to intercept by testing its first long-range hypersonic missile on Saturday night.
The land-launch variant of the missile, which has been under development over the last decade, will have several variants ready for service in the near future. "The missile was tracked by a number of range systems spread across a number of domains. Down-range ship stations have confirmed the high degree of accuracy of the successful terminal maneuvers and impact", officials said. The missile has been developed indigenously by the laboratories of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile complex, Hyderabad, and several DRDO laboratories and Industry Partners, added officials.
Union defence minister Rajnath Singh described the flight-trial as a historic achievement which has put India in the group of select nations having capabilities of such critical and advanced military technologies. At present, few nations like Russia, US and China have a demonstrated long range hypersonic missile capability. The missile, which will have a non-nuclear role, has a range in excess of 1,500 km and can carry varied payloads. Sources said the missile has been developed for the upcoming Rocket Force of the armed forces and is likely to be employed in both anti-ship roles as well as land attack.
Designed to be highly maneuverable, the ballistic missile has been developed using technologies from the Agni program and is capable of reaching speeds in excess of 5 mach, or five times the speed of sound. Given its speed, the missile will be difficult to detect by enemy radars. With the combination of speed and maneuverability, current air defence weapon systems will not be able to intercept it.
In the naval role, the missile is likely to be based on the island territories and will be tasked to target large enemy ships like aircraft carriers, making it a critical sea denial weapon to secure the Indian Ocean. In the land attack role, it will be deployed to take down high value targets such as enemy command and control centers and air bases.
India has a range of missiles at its disposal, starting from the long range nuclear tipped ballistic missiles of the Agni range. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has also recently tested a long range cruise missile and the armed forces have the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile in service as well. The DRDO has already developed a range of missiles, including 'Prithvi', 'Akash' and 'Agni'.
